A Princess In Arkham
by Wonderbat Erin
Summary: Based on Arkham Reborn. Diana visits Gotham to find Bruce and discovers that he's gone into Arkham to settle a dispute. But there's something... someone waiting there for the both of them.
1. Madness

**Hi dere guys, I'm back! With another attempt to write my OTP. So recently (or maybe not so recently, took me a couple months to get the whole story finished) I read Arkham Reborn. Basically it's an attempt to depict Arkham's madness, how it drags down everyone around it, and Jeremiah Arkham's transition to Black Mask. **

Sometimes she would forget how much pain there was in his world. How much darkness. How much madness.

And then suddenly it would become all too clear.

He fought an endless battle every day, and no one admired that more than she. She, who fought to protect the innocent - as he did, every minute of his life. But sometimes she wondered what he could have been. What he could have achieved.

And what they could have become.

Diana shivered. It was a cold night in Gotham, and her costume offered no protection from the elements. The Justice League had elected to send her to check up on Batman, who had been incommunicado the past week. She had to admit that she was feeling just a little worried for Batman, for though he liked his privacy, he never ignored a comm call.

"Commissioner Gordon," she said, acknowledging the man who was walking up behind her. He nodded. "Wonder Woman. You called?" Gordon said shortly.

"I'm here on urgent business for the League," she explained quickly. "I'm looking for Batman."

Gordon frowned, looking perturbed. "There's been... some trouble over at Arkham Asylum. Some mad doctor. I think he's over there trying to put things right."

"Got it," Diana said, nodding in thanks, as she took off in the direction of the infamous asylum.

When Diana reached the asylum, she touched down past the dark steel gates, and craned her neck towards the asylum. It was an interesting mix of classical and gothic design - the tall, cavernous mouth of a puma as a doorway, the torsos of Zeus adorning the sides of the building, and a curious web-like insignia emblazoned on the front-most wall. There was a strange, eerie hush - almost like the asylum was waiting for something, for someone.

And she didn't like it.

Carefully, she made her way past the doors of the building and stepped into a dark corridor. The walls were made of glass, and they looked into large cells with varying facilities. She narrowed her eyes at the sight of Killer Croc, basking imperiously in his oversized tub - remembering how he had almost come close to ripping off her leg, how he had torn off Aaron Cash's hand in a rampage of insane fury.

As she walked past, the inmates came to the glass, pressed their faces against it, and called out to me. "Wonder Woman," they called, their voices malicious, like the hiss of Medusa's snakes. "Wonder Woman."

She was ignoring them, and walking past, intent on her purpose, when suddenly, there was a quiet, choking giggle on her left.

It echoed round the room, and it mixed with the hollow, empty sounds of water dripping... Dripping.

This was hell, and she was in it.

"Victor Zsasz," she said, with an attempt to veil her surprise at the sudden outburst, to the man who had made the sound. He stumbled off his bed and came closer to her. He leaned forward, and touched the glass with one finger. His naked torso was covered with notches - one, they said, for every one of his victims. She lifted her lip in a snarl of barely-repressed disgust.

He sensed her repulsion, and smiled, pulling back his gums to reveal yellow teeth.

"You're looking for the Batman," he breathed, fogging up the already hazy glass, while she took a few hesitant steps away. She was curiously drawn to and repelled by him, this exhibition of the lowest form of mankind. "You don't know what you're up against. This place can break a man. It breaks everyone... Everyone. Even the doctor. Even the Batman. Even you."

Diana paused in her flight, and turned towards him. "What do you mean?" she said sharply. "_What do you mean_?"

He threw back his head and gave a malicious howl of laughter. And the others joined in... Their voices, joined in a chorus of madness. The harsh screams of mocking laughter, the jeering faces of madmen... The insanity of those beyond help.

"The mad doctor," hissed Zsasz. "He'll get you, Wonder Woman, just like he got me. And then you'll cry in your sleep, and every time you blink, you'll remember the mad doctor." Then he pulled back his eyelid.

And she recoiled. There, carved into the throbbing flesh, were two letters.

J.A.

She turned, and ran.

Finally she stopped, in the centre of a large plaza. Here there were no cells, no prisoners to taunt her, no madness to fear.

Here she could cry.

And she did cry - not to satiate her own fear, but for the broken humans she had seen. For their pain, their anger, their madness.

The gleam of a knife... The sharp cry of a child in pain... That was all it took to make a madman.

As she dried her tears, she slowly got up. No, she had a purpose here, and she would not forget it. But now she understood why Zsasz had said that the asylum could break a man. She would have broken if she had not been an Amazon, with a will of steel.

She would find Batman, and then she would flee... Back to safety.

After many minutes of walking, Diana soon discovered that she had been rather foolish in deciding to roam the asylum without guidance as to its outlay. Deeper and deeper she wandered, occasionally fingering her lasso, occasionally stopping nervously to glance around and try to pinpoint her location or any staff that could possibly direct her. But the asylum was curiously - eerily - empty. She supposed that a break-out would have scared off most of the staff, but still, that was no reason for leaving such potentially-dangerous patients unguarded.

Eventually she stopped. Even _she_ felt fear in this inhuman place.

She sat against the wall. This corridor was empty, thankfully, devoid of any cells.

She stared into nothingness, the only sound in the room the sound of her heavy breathing and her legs shifting uneasily on the concrete floor.

Then she buried her head in her arms and shook, the uncontrollable tremors passing through her body and leaving her shuddering with hopelessness. The soft sounds of her sobs now echoed through the empty corridor.

She had been in the asylum for but an hour, and already it was starting to break her. Madness was one of the few things that she feared, for it could not be beat into submission, not cowed into surrender. Instead, it rampaged on, like Ares on his warhorse, feeding on the weaknesses of men and embracing this who had suffered through loss.

But she had to be strong. She had to be. She was Wonder Woman. _She would not be weak_.

**So I decided to take on a more Blackest Night Wonder Woman - compassionate, but willing to do what she has to do. I don't think the JLU one really fits in here because she's portrayed as, yes, kind, but also arrogant and hot-tempered. Which is really not what I'm looking for here.**

**Glossary (just in case):**

_**Victor Zsasz -**_** a serial killer who usually kills with a knife and carves a tally mark somewhere on himself for every victim.**

_**Jeremiah Arkham -**_** originally head of Arkham Asylum, deposed and locked up by Alyce Sinner (his deputy) when he was discovered to be Black Mask.**


	2. Trapped

**Chapter two is up. I own nothing (forgot to put the disclaimer for the first chapter. Oops.)**

Batman rubbed his eyes. He had been keeping vigil above Arkham's temporary cell for what had seemed like millenia, ever since the man had been released from the medical ward claiming to be cured. Batman could hardly claim to knowing anything about psychology, but he knew one thing: Arkham was _not sane_.

So here he was, secretly watching the madman's cell in an attempt to learn something that would prove his oftentimes-correct suspicions.

Suddenly, his sharp eyes caught sight of a shadow around the corner. He slipped out of the air vent, narrowing his eyes. Yes, there was a shadow at the edge, unmoving, keeping a silent vigil, like he was. Stealthily, Batman made his way over to the shadow.

As he got near, it scuttled off round the corner. He hesitated but for an instant. The shadow fled before him, along the straight corridor - and somehow it always managed to keep in the shadows.

Suddenly, he found himself in the middle of the corridor. And it hit him that he'd been duped.

He whirled around and ran. But it was too late. The doors at the ends of the corridors slammed shut. Caged like a dog, he rammed his fists against the doors - and yet they held. Growling with anger and frustration, he hammered on the walls. Gas poured into the now enclosed chamber, and his blows eventually became weaker. With one last burst of fear, he gave a howl for help.

There was no response.

Finally, he could hold his breath no longer... And sank to the ground.

Diana jerked upright, and her head spun around to the direction of the cry.

It had been Bruce's voice.

She shot to her feet. Could it be... Was she simply hallucinating? Had the asylum finally succeeded in turning her insane?

No. She could swear that that had been a real cry of pain, of anguish, of despair. She could swear that it had genuinely been Bruce crying out for help.

She ran towards the direction of the sound. Through a long straight corridor, round a sharp corner, and then she skidded to a halt in front of a small, dimly-lit cell. A man sat in the middle, his wispy brown hair dirty, his bony face cast downwards. A pair of broken glasses lay on the ground in front of him.

She glanced towards the plaque on the right. On it was written the man's name. Black Mask. Jeremiah Arkham.

J.A...

"It's like a zoo, isn't it?"

Diana whirled around, glaring at the man. "What?"

"Our species, our names, written on signs beside our cages. The animals prowling restlessly inside, their majestic power contained..." mused Arkham, his eyes glittering with malice. "People fear madness, that is true, but it feeds their curiosity and their self-importance."

"You're... the mad doctor," she said, realising the truth in the midst of her dawning apprehension. "You... _You carved your initials into Zsasz's eyelid._"

"Are you shocked, Amazon?" he sneered.

She hesitated. Then - "No," she said, her voice strong. "I pity you. I wonder what must have happened to make you this way."

His eyes widened, then he slammed his fist onto the glass wall. He bared his teeth at her, his mouth frothing with spit and saliva, but she hardly flinched, looking straight into his eyes. Then he spun around as if afraid to face her.

"Don't!" he screeched. "Don't." And his voice devolved into a quiet, racking sob. "I thought like you before... Before all this. I thought I could cure them. I thought I could cure them all. But the asylum broke me. It breaks everyone. I... I've gone mad. I... I c-can't..." He shivered, then his face contorted with a series of violent spasms. "You'll go too. It's already taken the Batman. It'll take you soon, and _then_... and then you'll wish you were mad."

She gave him a sharp, alert look. "The Batman? What do you mean, _it's taken the Batman_?"

"The asylum... It's got him. It's going to break him. Tie him up like a hog and kill him..." Arkham said, his manic eyes gleaming with a perverted relish. "I hate him. _I hate the Batman_!"

_Bruce. _

Panic rushed through her body, shot to her head, swirled through her mind and made her dizzy. "You monster," she said, her calm voice shaking with rage. "_You monster._ Where is he?"

"He's where you'll never find her." Arkham spread his hands before him, with a leer eerily similar to Zsasz's. "He's inside his madness."

Then the ground opened beneath her, and she fell.

Bruce slowly came awake, his eyes trying to blink off the sudden fatigue that had come upon him. He shook his head slowly, blearily - and then sat up straight.

He was outside the Monarch Theatre. There was a family walking past him, blurry and unclear, as if it were a film, but he could see clearly enough. A boy, and his parents.

_Bruce's_ parents.

With a cry of horror, he lurched forwards, his hands outstretched as if to seize them from the illusion. But his hands passed right through them, as if they were but ghosts...

An illusion.

"No. No," he cried, scrambling away from them, but he hit a hard wall behind his back. And so it was that he was forced to watch the scene... Over and over again.

_Ha-Haa! Let all evildoers beware my sword! _

_Let's start with the pearls on the lady's neck._

_DAD! MOM!_

_..._

_Ha-Haa! Let all evildoers beware my sword! _

_Let's start with the pearls on the lady's neck..._

Bruce screamed, until his throat was ragged and hoarse, then he squeezed his eyes shut and clamped his hands over his ears. But he could still hear it... Every single, terrible word.

_Let's start with the pearls on the lady's neck..._

Then suddenly the voices stopped. He looked up, startled and hopeful, but his pupils dilated as he saw Diana. Crawling on the ground in front of him, her body marked with scars. A knife glittered in the air above her, and she screamed... He watched in stupefied horror, as the knife came down.

When Diana woke, she was lying on something soft. Something satiny.

Her bed in Themyscira.

Immediately she sat up straight. "No," she said aloud, as if hearing a voice (even if it was only her own) would comfort her. "I can't be home. This... isn't real. Am I dreaming?"

"No, you're not."

She jerked off the bed, fumbling for her lasso, but in the darkness, she was unsure. Unstable. And so she stumbled over the step at the edge of the bed.

"Who's there?" she called. There was no reply. And suddenly she got angry. Who dared cage her? Who _dared_ mock her? _Who dared play with her mind?_

She felt blindly around the room. Hard, cold steel. The only other thing in the room, as far as she could tell, was the bed. She collapsed into it, feeling tired and angry and confused the whole time.

Suddenly, she heard a faint whirring sound. A small rectangle of bright light appeared on the wall opposite to her, and she squinted in the sudden brightness. Then her eyes widened as she realised it was a film, depicting... Bruce. He was cowering in a corner, tears running down his face, past the cowl.

He looked close to breaking.

"Your pathetic little Batman. He thinks he knows pain, he thinks he knows madness... But he does not," said the voice, disdainfully. "He's here, somewhere, but you had better find him... before he breaks."

"How do I know this is real?" Diana growled, her eyes narrowing to slits.

"You don't. But you can choose to ignore me... Or you can choose to save him." A doorway appeared in the wall, and the film disappeared. Diana closed her eyes... Then she grimaced. _I can't take the chance that he's not here_, she thought. _I'll have to trust the voice. _So she entered the doorway, and it sealed shut behind her. Only too late did she realise where she was.

A labyrinth.

**So I would just like to address one of my concerns. I received a review from a Guest (you know who you are) and I'm just curious as to how I wrote Diana OOC. Perhaps you could drop by and tell me how I committed this (to me) insanely horrible crime? **


	3. Labyrinth

**I realise I may have tons of logic errors in this story, but I am, unfortunately, unable to spot them. An example would be that I only just realised that Diana could have bent the steel door and just escaped like that. So I would like some feedback? And if you spot any errors and tell me honestly, I would be very thankful to you! **

"Bruce?" Diana called. She grasped the lasso, the only source of light in the enclosed space. The only path she could perceive was a single dim archway directly in front of her.

She took a deep breath, wondering whether to twist the door open and make her escape. After all, it did really seem like this was all an elaborate trap… and she had the means and strength to break out. But on the off chance that Batman was, indeed, trapped in this prison... "All right," she called, trying to keep her voice steady. "All right. If you want to play it this way... I'll bite."

She went close to the wall which had closed her in, and felt around for any protruding bits. But the metal was cold and smooth. She then bent down and touched the floor. Finally she gave up searching for a spot to tie the lasso to, and simply twisted the metal of the door until there was a large bit sticking out. To this, she attached the lasso, and started forward.

The whole place was covered in a kind of dim, smoky fog that gave off no discernible odour, and yet unsettled her. As if there were eyes in the darkness.

"Bruce?" she called again, her voice a little more uncertain. If this had truly been a trap... She had been a fool to fall into it.

Then her heart leapt as a faint rasp echoed around the silent labyrinth. She ran forwards, following the sound of the laboured breathing.

And yet she seemed to be getting no closer. Now she could hear the breathing start to accelerate, punctured by by intermittent moans of pain. Diana ran faster, and yet she could get no nearer. She stopped to take a breath. Suddenly the breathing went high, turning into a scream of anguish.

Then all was silent.

Diana staggered to her feet. "This... this can't be real," she mumbled. "Not... real."

_Perhaps if you keep repeating that, you'll start believing it, _whispered some deep insidious part of her. She shook the voice off like she would a fly. There was no time for self-doubt; no time for fear. She just had to trust her instincts, and her instincts told her that she was going the right way... _for now_. The best thing to do was to find Bruce and get out.

Then an idea struck her. There was a homing signal in the Batsuit, and his location was sent to the Batcave. Superman had given her a device directly linked to the Batcave, so as to locate Batman even if he was trying to avoid her. As such, perhaps she would be able to find him with the signal.

She pulled it out from her pocket and flipped it open. Then she almost threw it down with frustration as she realised that the screen was black.

"That won't work here," said the voice, unexpectedly. "Nothing rational works here. Keep that in mind, Amazon princess."

"Nothing rational..." Diana wondered, her hands clutching the device tightly. Then she close her eyes and concentrated. She still had some remnants of her magic from when she had been a goddess. Perhaps now she would be able to utilise it, for what was more irrational than magic?

She channeled all the fear, the pain, the anger she felt, all of it seeping into the device. It shuddered in her hands. Once, twice. Then the screen flashed, and turned blue.

"Yess!" Pumping her fist into the air, Diana navigated to where Bruce was. According to the signal, he was located somewhere round the next few corners. As she started off, she paused. There was a strange presence in the air, and it seemed... almost angry. Furious. Thwarted.

She walked faster. Perhaps it would be prudent to walk faster, before the Presence managed to shut down her device or something.

She rounded a corner, then dropped to her knees as she saw Bruce, lying on a patch of straw. A hole, full of bright sunlight, far above his head. He was curled into a ball, his hands waving frantically above his head.

Then she saw them. The buzzing demon-bats above his head, darting in and out, batting at him with their leathery wings. He was screaming, rolling on the ground, his costume in tatters. All that covered his mask - and his identity - was a step of dark leather across his forehead, and one opaque lens. One bat ear had been torn off, and the other hung limp over the other eye.

"Batman," Diana cried, and ran towards him. She had barely gotten to him, and pushed him out of the way, when a large blade shaped like a hand slammed down where they had been a nanosecond ago.

"Come to Papa," crooned a dark, malicious voice. "Come to Papa. Bruce, you shouldn't have gone out alone..."

"The hand," Bruce choked, pointing at the blade. "His hand. His hand."

Diana pulled him close to her breast. "Don't look," she murmured. "Sleep. Just rest. I'll protect you. I'll love you."

He mumbled a few words. She leaned closer, frowning slightly. "What did you say?" she said gently.

"Love... Diana... Please," he whispered, and a sleepy smile curved across his face. Then his eyes closed, and she cradled him even closer. A tear slid down her cheek and splashed quietly onto the ground. All that was left was the sound of their breathing.

Then Diana felt something closing around them, like a hand of darkness. And yet she dared not move, for Bruce was sleeping like a baby in her lap. She bent over him protectively, but he stirred slightly, mumbling restlessly, and she knew he felt the Presence. So she called out, in a trembling voice, ready to sacrifice her pride. Her _life_. Anything to protect him.

Belatedly, she realised she would do anything for this man.

"Please..." and the broken voice was hardly hers. "Please... What do you want?"

And a woman stepped out of the shadows, in her hand she cradled a small doll. Diana squinted at the rough effigies, then recoiled in horror as she realised what it was. Clad in a crude tiara and marker-drawn star-spangled panties, the identity of the doll was obvious.

"Some call these... _dolls_. Playthings for the unorthodox," said the woman, and her voice was full of casual boredom as. "Of course, no one really understands how powerful these little dolls can be. Few do."

"Who are you?" Diana half-whispered, her voice ragged from yelling and screaming and crying. "How… How do you know who he is?"

The woman laughed, and it was a cruel laugh. She pulled out one of the red ribbons threaded through her hair, peering at it in the dim light.

"Despair," she mused. "Tell me, Amazon, what it feels like to have been brought so low."

Diana carefully eased Bruce off her and stood. Yet her legs almost collapsed below her - she had been under too much strain for too long a time.

The woman grinned. "Batman's been a thorn in my side for a long time," she said thoughtfully. "I managed to discern his identity when he was knocked out. He suspects me of something. That much I know. So I decided to have a little fun with him. Jerry won't be having any problems with him for a while now."

**The next chapter will be the last. Actually, this was supposed to be a oneshot, but it ended up too long when I word-counted it. Anyway, I'm not sure if you guys will like the ending, but I warn you, Alyce will be going down easier than everyone thinks. I mean, this is Diana... and she deals with stuff differently. Which is one of the practical reasons why Bruce should let her in. Maybe it would make taking down psycho villains easier.**

**As for chapters being too short, I'm really sorry, but I try to follow a general policy of having about 1200 words in a chapter.**

**Glossary:**

**_Alyce (Sinner) - _formerly the protege of Jeremiah Arkham, but is now Director of Arkham. She claims to be the only survivor of a cult suicide, but in reality, she murdered her parents and her fellow cult members. Sinner wears hair ribbons to represent the 7 Deadly Sins. In love with Black Mask (Jeremiah Arkham's alter ego).**


	4. A Lullaby

**Last chapter! Hoped u guys liked this mini-series and I may be doing an epilogue soon, so keep your eyes open!**

Diana felt a surge of anger course through her at the cold, calculating malice in the other's eyes, but she forced it down. Here, on her opponent's ground, she couldn't afford to let anger get the better of her. After all, she had Bruce to protect. It wasn't just her own skin she was looking after now.

"Why the voodoo doll, then?" she managed. "Surely you're not too much of a coward to take me down without resorting to such underhanded methods."

"I'm not stupid," said the woman, dismissing her statement airily. "As to your earlier query, you may call me Alyce. It's not my birth name, but it'll do."

Just for a second, desperate madness danced across her eyes, then in a flash, it was gone. Diana blinked, unsure if it really had happened. Alyce noticed her stare, and exhibited an uncharacteristic loss of patience. "What?" she snarled. "Keep your prying eyes away, Amazon."

That meant Diana hadn't been mistaken. If Alyce truly was mad... Then they had a chance, no matter how small. Diana had ever delighted in curing the sick, in bringing hope to the hopeless. Perhaps this time it would be enough to save both her skin and Bruce's.

She sat down, a move she immediately knew Alyce hadn't calculated because of the surprise in her eyes. The most advantageous position for her would have been to remain on her feet and be ready for whatever would be thrown at her, but instead she had chosen to seat herself and leave herself open to attack. It was a highly dangerous move. As such, it left Alyce unsettled and confused. She had been thrown off balance, and both of them knew it.

Diana cradled Bruce's head close to her. In her soft humming voice, she began to croon an old lullaby Hippolyta had sung to her when she had been but a child. Roughly translated, it went something like this:

_Sleep, for your day is done_

_The moon wears her dark cloak_

_And traipses across the sky_

_The birds settle down, and sing no more_

_You are weary and weak,_

_And tired of your labour. _

_But as the day draws to a close..._

_So you shall sleep, and sleep the deep sleep. _

The Themysciran words were soft and melodic, and Bruce moved his head ever so slightly. Diana glanced up out of the corner of her eyes, only to note that Alyce had started swaying to the mellow rhythm of the song.

"No," she mumbled. "No..." but her eyes were starting to flicker, her fingers starting to droop. With a gentle smile, Diana continued on to the chorus:

_There is a sadness, a pain in your eyes_

_A fear and a panic, all lurking inside. _

_If you but let go, and close your eyes,_

_The sky will embrace you, hold you in its arms. _

Thought she was fairly sure - okay, scratch that, very sure - that Alyce understood none of the ancient lyrics, she could tell that the song's magic was gradually weaving its way into the woman's bones, calming her, soothing her. Diana laid Bruce's head on the cold straw floor, and went quietly over to Alyce's still-standing body.

She held the woman's head lightly. The latter sighed, with genuine contentment, and Diana tenderly laid her on the ground.

It was times like this that Diana remembered why she was here, in Man's World, facing greed and gluttony every day of her life.

It was for the little things. The little things like the way the wrinkles under Alyce's eyes smoothened out as she slept, the way Bruce's eyes were still and placid under his eyelids, the way he shivered and whispered her name, missing her warm embrace... This feeling of compassion racing through her heart and leaving her light-headed.

She reached for the doll in Alyce's hands and took it. As she had suspected, there was a device inside that controlled everything in this hellish torture chamber.

_Voodoo doll my foot_, she thought with wry amusement, as she sat in the dusty straw, under false moonlight, next to two sleeping bodies. Besting Alyce had been easier than she had thought, but at the end of the day, the woman had been but another victim of the gods' whims.

A puppet on a string, dangled to suit the fancies of the gods.

Diana suddenly felt very tired. She shook her head and stared blindly at the device. Today, she had learnt so much about Bruce... So much. So much about his fears, his origin, the pain lurking behind the mask. And she vowed that she wouldn't let him get away this time, now that she knew so much about him. Now that she knew what she was getting herself into.

Now that she knew what governed the heart of the man she loved.

Unsuccessful at figuring out the device, she finally decided to just smash it. Luckily for her, that was exactly the way to go. A door opened soundlessly in front of her, and she heaved both bodies outside.

Right in front of Commissioner Gordon.

He stared at her in startled horror. "What... What happened?" he stuttered, confusion rendering his tongue temporarily incapable of speech.

"This woman's been putting the Bat and I through hell," she said shortly, feeling too tired to elaborate further. "I'll give you the full report later. But for now, B... Batman and I need to rest. Please take this woman away, and make sure she's well taken care of."

As Gordon stared at the woman, his expression hardened. "Alyce Sinner," he swore. "Batman was right all along. Excuse me, Wonder Woman."

When she left, he was making a call on his phone.

When Bruce awoke, he was lying in his bed. And he didn't know if he was dreaming or not.

There Diana was, standing silhouetted against the sunset. She wore a loose sweater and jeans, the cotton billowing out around her arms.

As if sensing he was awake, she turned around and gave him a dazzling smile. "I'm glad you're up," she said, sounding as if she sincerely meant it.

God, every part of him ached. He wasn't in the mood to engage in small talk. So he just grunted in reply, and moved on to more important matters. "How long was I out?"

"Two days," she replied, never missing a beat, although the disappointment that flashed across her face at his brusque dismissal of her advances was palpable. "Dick's been taking over your patrol."

_Great. She's calling him Dick now. What's he calling her, Diana?_ Bruce groaned internally, knowing that familiarity between Diana and any member of the Bat-Clan could lead to possible trouble. There were just so many little secrets about him that Dick, Alfred or Robin desperately longed to spill... _Does she know I wear boxers, not briefs? And that I slept with a teddy bear called Mammoth till I was fifteen_?

"And regarding your question," Diana interrupted his thoughts by saying pointedly, "he's very polite. He calls me Miss Diana."

Sometimes she knew him so well, it was almost disturbing.

Almost.

With another noncommittal grunt, he made to get up. But she was at his side in a second, forcing him back into bed.

One thing about having an Amazon as a nurse?

Don't.

He was quickly subdued, although it wasn't without a few Batglares and hissed threats. Diana, being the stubborn Amazon that she was, simply ignored what they both knew was only bluster and forced him back under the sheets. In another moment, there was a bowl of warm chicken soup on his lap and a hot glass of milk in his left hand.

"Eat," she said, her expression deadly serious, " and then we'll talk."

We'll talk. The two scariest words a woman could say.

He finished his food as slowly as humanely possible, though the way she frowned at him endearingly made it very obvious that she knew what he was doing. It didn't help that he took almost ten minutes to finish a spoonful of soup.

When he had set down his bowl and glass, she took his hand. It was warm to the touch.

"Bruce..." she started. "I asked Alfred. He... He told me everything I needed to know. You fell into the Batcave when you were young... It was your father's hand that pulled you out. Does this mean that Alyce knows your identity?"

"She... most probably does," he admitted grudgingly. It seemed that now more people knew his identity than he himself knew. "But it doesn't matter. She's insane. No one will believe her."

He sat up, as something suddenly occurred to him. "By the way, how did you get us out of there?"

She hesitated. "I... sang you a lullaby," she shared, almost shyly. "It has... a calming influence."

He gave her an incredulous stare. "You beat Alyce Sinner with a lullaby?"

She shrugged. "I guess."

They were silent for a few moments, their fingers intertwined. Then she spoke. "Does this hand-holding mean we're together now?"

He automatically snatched his hand away. "What?" he exclaimed. "Hell, _no_!"

Seeing the hurt in her eyes, and the way her head dipped down, he immediately regretted his rash words. Of course he wanted a relationship with her. He just... He just... Gah, relationships were so confusing.

"I mean..." he stumbled over himself, feeling very foolish. "I just mean that... Well, Bruce Wayne can't be seen dating Wonder Woman. But..." He paused here, seriously considered his next words. He knew that whatever he said next might either break her gigantic heart, or make her so happy that she'd go straight to Donna's flat and spill.

"...if... If you were to drop by the Batcave every night, I guess... no one would be the wiser."

He watched as a smile slowly spread across her face, from ear to ear, and he was left with a sonic boom as she soared through the sky.

**If any of you are angry at how easily Alyce was conquered by Diana, please remember: She fights crime differently. She isn't as shrouded in darkness as Batman is, and so some methods she uses might be more effective in different situations. Anyway if she's OOC I apologise, but I was just focused on getting the story done. Coodoes and remember to leave a review if you want to!**


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